Travels in Morocco, Vol. 1. | Page 8

one country with the other.
The success attending the various measures of the Bey of Tunis for the
abolition of slavery in North Africa, and the favourable manner in
which this prince had received me, when I had charge of a memorial
from the inhabitants of Malta, to congratulate his Highness on his great
work on philanthropy, induced the Committee of the Anti-Slavery
Society to confide to me an address to the Emperor of Morocco,

praying him to enfranchise the negro race of his imperial dominions.
We were fully prepared to encounter the strongest opposition from the
Shereefian Court; but, at the same time, we thought there could be no
insuperable obstacle in our way.
The Maroquines had the same religion and form of government as the
Tuniseens, and by perseverance in this, as well as any other enterprise,
something might at last be effected. Even the agitation of the question
in the empire of Morocco, amongst its various tribes, was a thing not to
be neglected; for the agitation of public opinion in a despotic country
like Morocco, as well as in a constitutional state like England,
admirably prepares the way for great measures of reform and
philanthropy; and, besides the business of an abolitionnist is agitation;
agitation unceasing; agitation in season and out of season.
On my arrival at Tangier, I called upon Mr. Drummond Hay, the
British Consul-General, stating to him my object, and asking his
assistance. The English Government had instructed the Consul to
address the Emperor on this interesting subject, not long before I
arrived, but it was with the greatest difficulty that any sort of answer
could be obtained to the communication.
Mr. Hay, therefore, gave me but small encouragement, and was not a
little surprised when I told him I expected a letter of introduction from
Her Majesty's Government. He could not understand this reiterated
assault on the Shereefs for the abolition of slavery, not comprehending
the absolute necessity of continued agitation on such a difficult matter,
as exciting from a despotic and semi-barbarous prince, fortified by the
prejudices of ages and generally sanctioned in his conduct by his
religion, the emancipation of a degraded and enslaved portion of the
human race. [7] However, Mr. Hay was polite, and set about arranging
matters for proceeding with a confessedly disagreeable subject for any
consul to handle under like circumstances. He made a copy of the
address of the Anti-Slavery Society, and sent it to the English
Government, requesting instructions. I expected an address from the
Institut d'Afrique of Paris; but, after waiting some time, the Secretary,
Mr. Hippolyte de St. Anthoine, wrote me a letter, in which he stated
that, on account of the ill-will manifested by the Emperor to the
establishment of the French in Algeria, the Institut had come to the
painful conclusion of not addressing him for the abolition of the

slave-trade in his imperial states.
Soon after my arrival at Tangier, the English letter-boat, Carreo Ingles,
master, Matteo Attalya, brought twelve eunuch slaves, African youths,
from Gibraltar. They are a present from the Viceroy of Egypt to the
Emperor of Morocco. The Correo is the weekly bearer of letters and
despatches to and from Morocco. The slaves were not entered upon the
bill of health, thus infringing upon the maritime laws of Gibraltar and
Tangier. The other captains of the little boats could not help remarking,
"You English make so much fuss about putting down the slave-trade,
and allow it to be carried on under your own flag." Even the foreign
consuls here reprobated the inconsistency of the British Government, in
aiding the slave-trade of the Mediterranean by their own flag. However,
Government ordered a strict inquiry into this case, and took means for
preventing the occurrence of a like abuse. Nevertheless, since then the
Emperor has actually applied to the British Consul to allow eunuchs to
be brought down the Mediterranean in English steamers, in the same
way as these were brought from Malta to Gibraltar in the
Prometheus--as, forsooth, servants and passengers. And on the refusal
of our consul to sanction this illicit conveyance of slaves by British
vessels, the Emperor applied to the French consul, who condescended
to hoist the tri-coloured flag for the transport of slave-eunuchs! This is
one way of mitigating the prejudices of the Shereefian Court against
the French occupation of Algeria. Many slaves are carried up and down
the Mediterranean in French vessels.
The keeper of an hotel related to me with great bitterness, that the
French officer who came with me from Gibraltar had left Tetuan for
Algeria. The officer had ordered a great many things of this man,
promising to pay on his return to Tangier. He deposited an old hatbox
as a security, which, on being opened by the hotel keeper, was